10 Must have widgets and pages on your Blog

Pages

1. About Page : Many a times, visitor (more than what you’ve written) would like to know about you especially when they like your posts. You need not go in details – Just a short biography about yourself is enough to be known by reader.

2. Form or way to contact : To contact you personally then let it be a request, query or something else; you should have a contact form on your blog. WordPress hosted blogs can have variety of such plugins and other platform can manage to find alternative or simply leave your Email ID.

3. Disclaimer or Legal Notice : In many countries, it is essential to make it known what is done with data provided. This generally includes information about “Privacy policy” and other things which may according to the country.

4. Clear Indication of License for Content : This page is not as essential because if not specifies- your content will be always under traditional copyright Licensening. It means nothing can be done without prior permission from you (Author)

Widgets

5. Search box – It is most essential thing on any webpage which facilitates user to find information on your blog. Using Adsense search box can also make money for you.

6. Category and Tag-Cloud – Categories and Tags are very helpful in finding or navigating any specific topic or keyword on the blog. Tag function is however not available on Blogger platform but still Category widget is always appreciated. Archive according to the period would also solve the purpose of better navigation

7. Subscription Links (by RSS or Email) : It is highly recommended to give vistors two options to subscribe your articles. This helps keeping in touch with new updates on your blog. You can also provide specific feed aggregator’s link to directly add in his account.

8. Blogroll : It shows the interest of author in various fields. It can also show list of similar sites and index of resource documents.

9. Links to other sites you own : If you own more than one website, it should be told to visitors of your blog. You should be the first promotor of your work.

10. Social Network Connectivity : You probably be having your account on Twitter / Facebook, etc. then don’t hide yourslef. Expose it so that visitor can connect you elsewhere on web and it also helps in increasing blog traffic.

Get orkut scraps on mobile for Free

Many users may have been waiting for this day when Orkut officially will start this service to ping their Mobiles with Orkut updates. You guys may have tries various tricks and hacks like changing scraps to RSS, making email email notification to send as SMS on mobile.

Now, Orkut has made this thing simple for you to get updated by recieving SMS message in you mobile inbox by using the service called ” Orkut SMS ” Orkut has alreadt launched their mobile version as http://m.orkut.com but it was of no use for mobile phones without facilities like EDGE or GPRS connectivity.

How to register?

1. Register your phone on the orkut website by going to mobile tab under Settings..
2. Choose Country and Enter your Mobile Number
3. After Clicking Next, you will receive Verification code from LM-Orkut.
4. Enter that code in the Orkut page and press Confirm button.

If you are a Orkut user, you should try it at-least for receiving scrap which is free.

Again, I am unlucky to be an Airtel subscriber which is not supported by Orkut. It doesn’t affect me because I don’t use Orkut much but don’t worry guys- Airtel is a leading cellphone carrier, it will be supported soon or just give it a try to check and confirm yourself.

Update: All network carriers including Airtel not only in India but also most of other countries are supported.

Please note that delivery of SMS message on mobile is not instant as soon as scrap is received. There is sometimes a delay of 3-4 hours but still an useful feature!

Operating system for Mobiles OS

Webware which just not only imitates but also works like operating system for your Mobile. Glide is a web application designed to be run from desktop and mobile devices: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The new “Glide OS 3.0” is a fairly complete Web-based desktop, with a word processor, a presentation app, a spreadsheet, e-mail, calendar, media players, and so on. Glide also has a rights management system built into its system, which lets users closely control what happens to their documents if they choose to share them.

A toned down version of all of these accessible from the phone. They have some featured content ready to stream and plus we can stream any of the music we uploaded. Same works with Videos as well. Plus you can sync your computer files to access from Mobile by logging in via Desktop. Various Photo effects are also given in their impressive image editors.

* This works pretty well on S60 series mobile phone default browsers but I tried with S40 (Nokia 5220 XpressMusic) it works same as shown in screenshots when accessed through Mini Opera. Share you experience when you try it on your phone.

Desktop Vesion- http://GlideOS.com

Mobile Version- http://GlideMobile.com

Fast GPRS Web Browsers for Slow Connection and Opera Mini for Windows

Opera Mini is quite a popular application and used by almost all of us on Mobile devices for web browsing because it offers fast browsing even on slow GPRS connection. Problem comes when you are connected to Internet via GPRS on Computer / Laptop and you are stuck with slow loading webpages.

At the time of writing this article, I am at a rural place, far from my home without any fast 3G connection. Only option left with me is Airtel GPRS connected to Laptop and I was experimenting things to get things done somewhat faster.

Here are some results and my experiences with different web browsers at slow speed.

Though there is no program called for Opera Mini for Windows or any Desktop but Opera (Desktop version) has an awesome feature called Turbo which does similar job.

Opera Turbo offers faster web page loading and speedier browsing even on slow GPRS / EDGE connection. Obvious question is how does Opera Turbo mode does that and how can it squeeze out speed. So, let me tell you how.

Unlike regular web browsers, Opera Turbo doesn’t serve downloaded page elements (images, text, scripts, etc) from server. Whenever you request to open any web page, it first loads on Opera servers and compressed there before they actually load on your computer.

Opera turbo WebP Compression Mode

Opera Mini does similar thing but then it degrades image quality but Opera 11 came with a solution for that. Since Opera 11.1, Opera Turbo mode compresses JPGs using Google WebP image format offering loss-less compression.

Not just Fast

As the data loaded by you and using machine is compressed one and light in weight, you save bandwidth. This is useful when you are traveling and using Wi-Fi which is charged according to use.

Testing Firefox and Google Chrome on GPRS

Till version 3.6, Firefox never worked well on slow connections but Firefox 4 really does a good job even on GPRS connection comparing to its predecessor.

I will limit myself from giving out timings in seconds but even Google Chrome couldn’t outperform Opera Turbo Mode.

For browsing, I can conclude that Opera is a clear winner and you can call Opera Turbo as Opera Mini for Windows Computer.

When Downloading, I used Internet Downloaded Manager to squeeze out maximum possible speed from storage server. Maximum speed I received was 27.32 Kbps with an average speed of 22 kbps when tried on multiple sites.

Optimizing your website performance

Now, you can analyze your site’s performance using online tools. These tools analyzes one’s site in many various important aspects such as actual loading times for different connection speeds, how many images are loaded, how many bytes of data is being loaded, etc.

Website optimization
What you have to do is visit : http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/
Enter your site/blog URL and press “Submit query”.
Within minutes, you will get a detailed site report from where you can know Analysis and recommendations for your blog.

Also, you can enter anyone’s URL ( friends’ or competitors) to know and see how well or bad their site performed compared to one’s own site.

On wedale’s analysis on “website optimization”, I got :
Green (3) | Yellow(1) | Red (7)
So, now I’ll have to take care of Total objects and Image size in order to speed up.

Pingdom tools
Visit : http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ and hit “Test now” after entering blog URL.
You can also save your test if you want to share with others like me.

Pingdom Tools’ analysis has something that Web Site Optimization does not have – detailed load times for each item loaded! This is so totally cool! Totally useful!

To view Webdale’s analysis by Pingdom Click here.

How it works :

The Full Page Test loads a complete HTML page including all objects (images, CSS, JavaScripts, RSS, Flash and frames/iframes). It mimics the way a page is loaded in a web browser.

The load time of all objects is shown visually with time bars.

You can view the list of objects either in load order or as a hierarchy. The hierarchy view allows you to see which objects are linked to in for example a CSS file.

Get your dot com free here

This is not a sponsored post or anything like paid stuff. You might have observed that webdale.blogspot.com is now TheWebdale.com

Yes, you are right, we have our own domain and we are on wordpress platform now. Actually, I’ve got this domain for free. If you too want your domain, you can register at Hyperwebenable.com and move from (dot)blogspot.com to (dot).com, Regarding moving from blogger to wordpress, I’ll write it in my next post.

Most of the people think that domain is never 100% free but here it’s totally free. Hyperwebenable is not like other free website providers, you can compare it from below:

Services provided :

1. Complete free services no hidden cost.
2. Free Website like www.yourname.com.
3. Multiple free websites also provided.
4. Free web space of 1 GB.
5. Unlimited email ids for your website like (info@yahoursite.com,contact@yoursite.com).
6. PHP 4.x
7. MYSQL (Unlimited databases).
8. Unlimited Bandwidth.
9. Free 51 free scripts to install in your website(like Blog scripts,Forum scripts,Content management scripts, Wiki).
10. We install extra scripts on request.
11. Hundreds of free templates to select.
12. Technical support by email.

So, what are you waiting for? Go, request your free website now. My blog is a live example of this free service; if you still have any query, have your comments here. Remember one thing- while requesting free domain- you will have add “referred by TheWebdale.com” in the message space so that you can get your domain instantly and good customer service.

Get orkut scraps on mobile for Free

Many users may have been waiting for this day when Orkut officially will start this service to ping their Mobiles with Orkut updates. You guys may have tries various tricks and hacks like changing scraps to RSS, making email email notification to send as SMS on mobile.

Now, Orkut has made this thing simple for you to get updated by recieving SMS message in you mobile inbox by using the service called ” Orkut SMS ” Orkut has alreadt launched their mobile version as http://m.orkut.com but it was of no use for mobile phones without facilities like EDGE or GPRS connectivity.

How to register?

1. Register your phone on the orkut website by going to mobile tab under Settings..
2. Choose Country and Enter your Mobile Number
3. After Clicking Next, you will receive Verification code from LM-Orkut.
4. Enter that code in the Orkut page and press Confirm button.

If you are a Orkut user, you should try it at-least for receiving scrap which is free.

Again, I am unlucky to be an Airtel subscriber which is not supported by Orkut. It doesn’t affect me because I don’t use Orkut much but don’t worry guys- Airtel is a leading cellphone carrier, it will be supported soon or just give it a try to check and confirm yourself.

Update: All network carriers including Airtel not only in India but also most of other countries are supported.

Please note that delivery of SMS message on mobile is not instant as soon as scrap is received. There is sometimes a delay of 3-4 hours but still an useful feature!

Applying favicon to your Blog

It’s possible to add favicon to your blog as many top-websites have such as Google have “G”, MSN have their butterfly and blogger have a “B” by default. So, you can change it using the following trick. Not actually a trick but a website called myfavatar hosts favicons of blogs and sites for free. So,we can use their free service.
First of you will have to create an image (preferably 50×50) using photoshop, powerpoint or any other application you have. After creating it save (animated GIF’s are not allowed) and upload it on MyFavatar. They will provide you with HTML code and you will have to insert it in the header section of your template.

However the above image refers to my another blog(Musicalblast) as I haven’t applied favicon to this one.
Now, whenever you see at the address-bar the image will appear instead of default blogger.
I will prefer the first alphabet of your site name as I have “W” for webdale. You can also have your personal photo-snap for personal websites like this.

Send 1GB Files using Email or IM | Pando

Pando is a free, cross-platform program that lets you transfer files up to 1GB. Now, you can share heavy files up to 1 GB using Email or Instant messenger client. To use this service, both, the sender and the recipient have to download Pando.

There is no sign-up, no registration, no fee to use this service. You open this program, drag your file into pando open window and click Send. It asks you for Email address of recipient and off you go. The recipient gets a tiny attachment in their mailbox; click on it to launch Pando program, which begins file downloading. It’s servers are fast, the whole thing is anonymous and secure.

For People : It supports all popular Email service providers. Supported Email & IM clients are Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL, Skype, Outlook, Yahoo Messenger and Outlook. The free version maxes out at 1GB files; the upgrade costs $5 a month.

For Bloggers/Publishers : You can post media on all popular web hosts such as Blogger, WordPress and RSS. Moreover, you can share files on Myspace, Facebook and PodCast. You can Stream full-screen HD video from your site, accelerate your downloadable media. It may reduce your Bandwidth bills upto 90%.

Gmail gadget for desktop

Another hit from Google services, Now you can receive your gmail directly onto your desktop. Here’s a new Gmail desktop gadget to view gmail messages. You will need to have Google desktop installed on your system to see it working.

All functions of Web Gmail like reading, searching, marking as starred,etc. are possible with this gadget. Moreover, it has contact autocomplete function with keyboard shortcuts working as usual. You can bring up hidden gadgets on Windows by pressing shift key twice.

If you have Google desktop, just give it a try!

Twitter ditches controversial QuickBar from iOS client

Oh QuickBar, we hardly knew ye. Just one month after its debut, Twitter has remove the controversial feature from its iOS client. “Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today,” reads a post on the company’s official blog. “For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery.” If you’re just itching to get rid of the that pesky bar, the update is waiting for you in the App Store.
Last month, we released an update to Twitter for iPhone and iPad containing a number of features that made finding friends and sharing information on Twitter even easier. The iPhone app also contained a new feature we wanted to test named the QuickBar. The QuickBar was originally conceived to help users discover what’s happening in the broader world beyond people they already follow. The bar was also seen as a potential means of in-app notifications for new @mentions, DMs, and other important activity.

We want Twitter to instantly connect people everywhere to what’s most meaningful to them. In support of this, we will frequently experiment by trying new things, adding new features, and being bold in the product decisions we make. After testing a feature and evaluating its merits, if we learn it doesn’t improve the user experience or serve our mission, we’ll remove that feature.

Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery.

How do you use your phone? We are determined to find out

A large part of our job as phone reviewers involves judging of whether a particular compromise made by the designers is beneficial to the handset's target audience or not. To do this properly we rely on our experience as well as on all the feedback you are giving us - we try to make sure those thousands of comments and emails each day are put to good use.

But we thought it would be nice if we simply asked you about it. You know, just to confirm that we are on the right track. Naturally we'd also be sharing the results with you as we believe they will make an interesting read for the average user and that they will be useful to anyone in the industry. The feedback of such a huge group of people with keen interest in and deep knowledge of cell phones like you just cannot be overlooked.

We will be publishing the real poll next week, asking you how often you use the following features of your mobile phone.

But before we get there, we'd like YOUR OPINION on the content of the survey. So consider the following list of important cellphone features as a proposal to you.

If you feel we are missing something important, then by all means drop us a line in the comments section and we'll look into it. That's the whole purpose of this article today so don't be shy, go on and drop us a line. Even if you think the list is alright as it is, we'd still like to hear it from you.

We'll be publishing the finalized survey and opening the voting next week and you are all welcome to participate. Oh, and thanks for helping.

Call and text message

• Make video calls
• Send SMS
• Send MMS

Email

• Send/receive email

Socialize

• Chat on an IM network (Skype, MSN, GTalk, WhatsApp, etc.)
• Engage in social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Share photos and videos online

Capture

• Take photos
• Shoot videos
• Use special shooting modes (Panorama, Time-lapse, etc.)

Listen

• Listen to music
• Listen to radio
• Listen to audio books
• Listen to podcasts
• Use music recognition services

Watch

• Watch movies
• Watch online videos (YouTube, etc.)
• Stream content over DLNA or TV-out

Play

• Enjoy mobile games

Browse

• Web browsing
• Get info updates (news, sports, weather...)

Explore

• Use as a digital map
• Use for GPS navigation
• Organize trip itineraries
• Discover new places of interest: restaurants, cafes, attractions, etc.
• Augment reality with local info apps

Personal assistance

• Manage your time with calendars, reminders
• Use as alarm clock
• Use the calculator, unit converter, etc.
• Put down notes or tasks
• Use as a flashlight
• Use as a weight-tracker, calorie-counter, exercise logger
• View or edit office documents

Read

• eBooks
• Magazines and newspapers

Connect

• Use a mobile internet
• Use phone for tethering (mobile hotspot)
• Transfer files over Bluetooth

Google to offer PayPal Payment method in Android Market ?

As you know, Google Checkout is a payment system for Internet search giant launched back in 2006 . Its purpose was to oust PayPal as a payment method online. Never had much success, and remains well below PayPal despite being the method of payment at the Android Market.

Moreover, the fact that they use Google Checkout to discourages many users purchase applications, as this payment system only accepts credit / debit cards, has geographical restrictions, not to store balance. So, Google might be negotiating to use PayPal as a payment method in the Android Market.

Why Google would integrate the system of competition in its App Store? Very simple. PayPal has a large user base, and pay with it’s quick and easy. If we make the process easier for users to purchase an application, users will buy more. This would benefit Google in two ways. The first, of each sale at the Market, Google takes 30%. More Market purchases mean more money for Google.

The second is that if you increase the number of shopping at the Market, the more compelling platform for developers, thus increasing the number of applications. In short, Google does not lose as much as wins if you include PayPal as a payment method.

At the moment, neither Google nor PayPal have made any comment on this, so it is not certain that negotiations end up well. But in doing so, the Android Market would be a far more serious competitor to Apple’s App Store, where shopping is quite easier.

Disable or Block Ads on Android Device using AdFree Android App

Basically there are three types of application available on Android market. The best class is of the freeware apps that are free to use with out any restrictions. Many of them are paid, once you buy them its all yours and finally the adware applications that are free but display ads on the application interface to generate revenue for the developers. Although these ads are mend to support the developer but they cost you your bandwidth.

Thanks to BigTinCan developers, users of rooted Android devices can now block ads on their applications and even your default web browser in some cases using this free application .

AdFree Android is a nifty application which enables the user to block annoying on screen ads on their Android apps to cut down the bandwidth usage which is very crucial for users subscribed to data-based 3G plans.

Once your device is rooted its is a piece of cake to install and setup the application. Once the application is launched it will automatically search for the prerequisite host file and apply the fix. How ever is you want to revert the settings you can do so by hitting the revert settings button.

So go on and download the application by scanning the below QR code to set up your ad-free life.

Note: As developers work hard day and night developing application to make your digital life easy please don’t use the above fix unless you are running out of your data limit. Please support through developers for the further development of your favorite application.

How To Hide Specific Photos and Videos From Android Gallery

Many of us, or I must say, almost all of us have images and videos on our Android devices, we want hidden from other people. By default there is no option to exclude a specific folder from gallery, you can password protect your files using some application from the market but none comes with out a hefty price tag.

Yesterday night I was doing some research on my Samsung Galaxy S and got a superb idea as to how you can hide a folder from Gallery and stock file manager. The application used in this process is free to download from market.

1. As stock File Manager for Android is not adequate to do the trick, download and Install Astro File Manager from market. The application is free to download and use.
   
2. Now select the Folder you want to hide from the gallery and long press on it. Suggest to create a new folder and later import all your private data in it.
3. On the File Options popup menu, tap on edit and select rename.
   
4. While renaming just put a period(.) in front of the folder and confirm.
   
5. From now on that folder will be treated as system folder and will be hidden from your Gallery and stock File manager.
   
6. Now just import all your private files and folders into that folder using Astro File Manager and live a tension free life.

How to Force Set Always Idle / Away Status on Gtalk / Gmail Chat

Gtalk is most used chat client and by default it doesn’t provide any option to set status as “Idle” or “Away” or simply show Orange Light infront of your Name to your Chat List friends. So, here is a trick to do that forcibly.

To set Idle or Away Status on Gtalk or Gmail Chat, you will have to use Pidgin (Download here) which is another Multiple account Chat client available for Windows and Linux. It provides an option to set your chat status as “Away” which reflects orange bulb to your friends without actually you are idle.

Yes, Invisible is another option but it will be shown as Offline to all Friends in Chat list. You can use Gmail Invisible Detector trick to find who is hiding from you setting status as Invisible.

This helps in several ways, there are some people on Chat whom you cannot avoid even if you want to, no matter you set Red bulb or Busy status. Being Away is a best option as no one can blame you that you didn’t respond to them.

How To Install and Apply New Fonts on Non Rooted Samsung Galaxy Series

Are you bored to see the same old font on your Samsung Galaxy mobile? You desperately want to get a funky font but the tricks mentioned in some forums gives your shiver? Now here is the easiest and simplest way to change the default font on Galaxy Smartphones.

How To Install and Apply Funky Fonts

1. To start, go to home screen –> settings –> applications and check unknown sources. This will allow you to install non-market application on your Android.
   
2. Download and install Font for Galaxy on your Galaxy Series Android smartphone.
3. Once install just fire the application, on the man screen you will see Fonts arranged in alphabetical order. Just select a font you want to install.
   
4. Once you have selected the font, your phone browser will fire up and download the necessary .apk file.
   
5. Now install the downloaded file.
   
6. To apply the newly installed font go to home screen –> settings –> Sound and Display –> Font Style.
   

These fonts are based on FLIPFONT library. So if your device has flipfont function, then you can use these fonts although your device is not Galaxy series.

Get Complete Contact info with Social Profiles of Sender on Gmail Sidebar

Ads are displayed on right sidebar of Gmail so, instead why not utilize that space with something informative. Rapportive is addon which shows Sender’s Bio, Social Media Updates and Links, Live Tweets and more!

It is completely interesting addon which can fetch information about the contact (sender) using Email ID and makes the Gmail interface look more informative and attractive.

We have already seen how to display Display Picture of Contact in gmail but Rapportive adds Rich Profile with complete information.

By default, just Google Contacts information is shown and then you may Link your Facebook, LinkedIn and other Social Network’s accounts to fetch more information about particular contact.

Now, you may be worrying about Security Concern but let me tell you that you are not giving away Gmail login details to this addon and it uses secured Google Federation Login and Open ID system to integrate Social Media accounts.

How to Login Multiple Account of Facebook, Gmail, etc on Same Browser

If you would have notice most of the web service like Facebook and Twitter allow only one user login from a given browser at any given time. For the people who need to monitor two of such account at the same time have to use two browsers to do their work.

Now here is the trick to open more than one account in the same service using Firefox and Chrome.

For Firefox Users

1. Download and Install the Multifox Plugin. Allow any application request in the installation. Multifox is an extension that allows Firefox to connect to websites using different user names. Simultaneously.
   
2. Once the Plugin in installed successfully restart your Firefox.
3. Now right click any where on the Tab bar and select “Open in a New Identity Profile”.
   
4. Selecting this option will open a new window using which you can login to same service with another username.

If you don’t want to switch windows you can drag and drop the tab in the existing windows.

For Chrome Users

Google thinks so much for their users. Unlike Firefox fans you guys don’t need to install any plugin for the trick. Just initiate incognito tabs using Ctrl+Shift+N and open same service with two different account.

Run Desktop Applications On The Clouds With Spoon like Web Apps

There may be times when you need to test an application or you are in an urgent need to extract a 7zip archive but you don’t have necessary program installed on your system. Normally one would have downloaded the application from web for one time use, installed it and complete his work but it would have cost both time and resources.

Now with Spoon you can run most of the regular used desktop application on the cloud thus saving both space and time.

What is Spoon

Spoon is a free online service that enables users to launch desktop applications from the web with no install, so you can test and use applications instantly, wherever you are. Spoon has over a thousand of desktop application available and to to run them on cloud all you just need is a simple one time install plugin.

How to use Spoon

1. When you visit the Spoon Homepage you will be asked to install a plugin on you local computer. The program will work as a sandbox application for all the other applications.
   
2. Once you have installed the plugin you will be asked to make an account on Spoon.
   
3. After you have successfully made an account the jobs is done.
4. Now select any application from Spoon App Library and launch the app
   
5. It will take few seconds to buffer depending on your connectivity speed.
   
6. Once the buffer is complete you will be able work on the application as it was installed on your local computer.
   

Please make sure you have a decent internet speed or it will spoil the party.